{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/land-clearing",
 "title": "Land Clearing",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James McIntyre",
 "poet_slug": "james-mcintyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems of James McIntyre",
 "book_slug": "poems-of-james-mcintyre",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 9,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1889,
  "venue": "Poems of James McIntyre (1889)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36068",
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 28,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "The first winter which I did spend",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In Canada was with a friend,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And when the snow had passed away",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Quite early in the month of May.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Friend started off for a barn raising,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And told me to get stumps ablazing,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Around each stump I heaped a pile",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of roots and junks of wood so vile.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For he wished the field to clear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So it a crop of wheat would rear,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there was one high withered pine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which was full of turpentine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "As soon as I applied the torch,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blaze quick did start and it did scorch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The fences, and the woods were nigh,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For the old tree it blazed on high.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I was the only man or boy",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Near there that day and found employ",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In saving of the house and barn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thus early fire fiend did me warn.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Fire started and with it a breeze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Carried the sparks ’mong leaves of trees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I did work hard but for recompense",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All was saved but a few rails of fence.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Man in spring logging oft awakes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From winter slumbers nests of snakes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And listens to the music grand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of bull frogs, our Canadian band.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}